Originally Posted by ThatDarnSacramentan
I never thought I'd see a Stockton thread on here, let alone such a comprehensive, solid set. Good job.
I'll take a stab at this since I'm a born and raised Valley kid.
You know how there's sort of a general aspiration among kids to go to the big city? You know, kids all over the Midwest, as they grow up, dream of going to Chicago, bright lights, big city type stuff? It's the same with the Valley, except perhaps stronger. It's not something you really hear talked about openly, but there's this mindset, growing up all over the Valley (to a lesser extent in Sacramento and to far greater extents once you get to the Stocktons and Modestos and Escalons of the Valley) that you do whatever it takes to get the hell out. My own cousins, born and raised in deep ag country, the moment they could get out, they got the hell out to LA and never really looked back except for family emergencies.
In a state like California that's romanticized and publicized so heavily around the world as paradise, as a dream, growing up it sure doesn't feel that way when you're not on the coast. The Valley's practically a second tier of California, so close yet so far away. For the most part, the aspiration is either for SoCal or the Bay Area (and to some extent, Sacramento for those who want the city life without the level of problems those respective regions have). Even I remember growing up, after my first visit to San Francisco when I was 4 and seeing all the shiny cars and skyscrapers, thinking that I wanted to live there (of course, now you couldn't pay me to live in the Bay Area). Sacramento is the exception to the rule, though, because everyone I know that's gone away for school or moved for work, they/we all want to come home at some point, and these are people living in Chicago/New York/Miami/etc. Back to Stockton, you've got a city bombed out like this because, for the most part, the only people really left are the ones that couldn't get out. You see horrible gang issues, drug trafficking, all kinds of issues because the smart kids, the hard workers, the proud dreamers, all came from the dusty, overlooked part of Paradise looking out toward the mountains in the west and knowing the "real" California was just beyond. These are the future small business owners and city council members and doctors, and they just feel it growing up that they need to get out while they can.
Those other cities? The kid from outside Des Moines dreaming of Chicago? Chicago's a whole other state, maybe five, six hours away. All of us growing up in the Valley, we look at any freeway sign, they all point to two places: San Francisco and LA, and you realize pretty quick that San Francisco isn't five hours away; it's just an hour over those mountains on the horizon.
|